Funeral held on Eid for Palestinian whose body was held by Israel for six months

Thousands of Palestinians gathered near the occupied city of Hebron on the first day of Eid to bury a prisoner whose corpse was held by Israel for six months.

Faleh Musa Jaradat, 40, was shot dead by occupying Israeli forces in Hebron in January and his corpse was then held by Israeli authorities.

Israeli forces handed Jaradat's body over at the Gilo checkpoint, local activist Moataz Jaradat told The New Arab's Arabic language service, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

His body was taken to his family's hometown of Sa'ir on Saturday, the first day of the Muslim Eid Al-Adha holiday. The funeral took place hours later.

Family of Faleh Jaradat from Hebron receive their martyred son’s body which has been withheld by the Israeli authorities for seven months. pic.twitter.com/MJHwwdtZsN

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) July 9, 2022

Israeli forces agreed to give the body back only if it was buried on the same day and not taken to hospital, Jaradat said.

The family was also made to guarantee to Israeli forces that mourners would not open fire during the funeral and that no protest would take place afterwards, he added.

Jaradat's corpse was wrapped in the Palestinian flag and taken to the Great Sa’ir Mosque where around four thousand Palestinians prayed over him before he was taken to his burial place.

'Inhumane psychological warfare'

Israel routinely withholds the bodies of Palestinians its forces shoot dead.

In March 2018, Israeli lawmakers passed a controversial bill allowing police to hold the corpses of alleged Palestinian assailants indefinitely.

Israel is thought to keep the bodies of Palestinians as bargaining chips.

Palestinians have regularly denounced the practice as inhumane and a form of psychological warfare and collective punishment.